Hello.

May 11 First time baking bagels

I am currently visiting America, so I thought it would be fun to bake something related to America: Bagels! I had never tried baking bagels before, and reading through the recipes on google I realized that it might be a little bit more tricky than I thought. But I decided to give it a go, and I think they turned out pretty well! Well, they are not the prettiest bagels I have ever seen, but they taste good and it was fun. I tried to combine two recipes to get the best out of them and this is how I did and what I used:

Ingredients for 8-10 bagels:

3,5 cups bread flour

1 envelope active dry yeast

1 tablespoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 cups warm water

2 tablespoons honey

1 egg

Preparation:

Start by activate the active dry yeast. In a small bowl add 1/2 a Cup warm water, 1/2 a teaspoon sugar and yeast. Mix and let sit for 5-10 minutes. You can see that the yeast is activated when it has created a foam.

In a stand mixer, mix bread flour, salt and sugar.

Add the yeast water to the dry ingredients, whilst running the stand mixer on a low pace.

slowly add the rest of the water (1 Cup) a little bit at a time. You might not need to use all of the water.

Let the dough come together, and beat for about 8 minutes.

Let the dough rest for about an hour under a baking cloth.

Start boiling a big pot with water and honey.

Divide the dough into 8-10 even pieces and roll them into balls. Poke a hole in the middle and form them to bagels. When you are shaping a bagel, keep the rest of the dough under a baking cloth.

poach the bagels in boiling water for about 20-30 seconds per side, depending on the size.

Brush the bagels with egg wash, and add toppings.

Bake in 425 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20-25 minutes. Flip them after half the time.

For toppings I wanted to try a few different ones. I topped two of them with sesame seeds, two with poppy seeds, two with smoked sea salt and two with all three combined. Have you ever used smoked sea salt? I was very surprised when I opened the container and smelled it. Very strong and smoky smell. But it was really good on the bagels!

The biggest struggle I had with the dough was that it got so wet and loose! It stuck to the bowl, the working surface and our hands when I tried to shape the bagels. I think I should have been a bit more careful when adding the water to the dough.

It is easy to manipulate pictures and show off the best side of your baked goods, but this photo below shows what they really looked like…a bit uneven in shape and size…pretty obviously not made in a professional bagel factory… But who cares! This was my first try, and they were delicious. Hopefully they can not look worse next time. :-)

I definitely learned a few things about bagels from baking these, and I will soon post an update on my second try to bake the perfect bagel!!